Last night I read an article on Forbes about how former vice president Joe Biden released his financial holdings to the public. And it is plain to see that Joe Biden’s Net Worth is embarrassing. It’s embarrassing because relatively speaking, as a public servant, he should have more money and assets to show for a life in politics.
No wonder his former and current administration couldn’t balance a freaking budget! (But then again, which presidential administration was perfect at that?)
Joe Biden earned $17.3 million on the public speaking and book writing circuit between 2017 and 2021. And apparently as of 2021, his net worth is $8 million. And while that sounds impressive, Biden only has about $950,000 in liquid assets.
After a lifetime in politics as “Middle-Class Joe,” this hard math betrays an inability to save or invest prudently. And after the last administration, that is not a great quality to have in a leader or presidential administration.
Before we go in a deeper dive, let’s take a bullet point examination of Biden’s net worth.
Joe Biden’s Net Worth is Embarrassing
- Age: 78
- Employment: U.S. Senator from 1973-2008, Vice President 2009-2017, President 2020 – Present
- Average Annual Salary throughout Senate and VP Political Career: $109,988
- Average Annual Salary as President: $400,000
- Total Salary Earned between 2017 – 2021: $17.3 million
- Net Worth as of 2021: approximately $8 million
- Liquid assets: $950,000
I thought it had to be a mistake. There’s no way someone with his income history should have so little money saved.
And even though Biden is known as “Middle-Class,” the nickname is a misnomer. When Biden started in the senate in 1972, his salary was about $42,500. Sounds modest, but when adjusting for inflation, $42,500 in 1972 has the buying equivalent of $277,500 in 2021.
Biden’s last year in the senate, 2008, saw him making $169,000. And adjusted for inflation, that is the equivalent of $214,0000.
I went straight to the White House website and looked at his financial disclosure report and by golly, this guy is a personal finance idiot.
And that is not a partisan attack, that is strictly an opinion based on his financial history. And anyone making the equivalent of $200,000 annually for 40 years should have more to show for it.
Furthermore, they should not be allowed to get away with calling themselves “Middle-Class,” as a public nickname.
Joe Biden has been banking an upper-middle-class salary for almost 40 years and he has well under a million dollars to show for it. The math doesn’t add up and he must be called on it, especially as the leader of the free world.
I am not saying he’s a crook, I am saying that he couldn’t balance a checkbook or federal budget if he swapped brains with a mathematician.
The fact that this guy’s opinion might even be considered in any fiscal matter concerning the United States of America is absolutely terrifying.
Let’s further break down these numbers to learn why Joe Biden’s net worth is embarrassing.
Where Did The Money Go?
In Joe Biden’s memoir, he admitted that he was always falling behind in payments and always in debt.
Joe Biden’s net worth is embarrassing because, after four decades of public service, he never invested wisely or saved money. Biden was always stretching himself to the breaking point to make ends meet.
As Biden left office in 2017, he had a federal pension of $160,000, some retirement and life insurance accounts, and some properties. Biden was barely worth $2.5 million.
Between 2017 and now, Biden made over $17 million. But his net worth is $8 million. And his current liquidity is barely less than $1 million.
Something is financially rotten in the state of Pennsylvania.
The Bidens paid over $7 million in taxes after earning the $17 million after leaving office in 2017. They also reportedly gave over $1.3 million to various charities. The Biden’s house staff were paid $180,000. And they paid over $80,000 on mortgage interest payments.
Additionally, Biden has pledged not to invest in stocks to prevent the appearance of ethical conflicts. But Biden has barely invested in diversified mutual funds, an investment that can accomplish that purpose.
Biden barely has $200,000 in such funds, and by neglecting to ethically invest in the stock market more often, he has undoubtedly missed out on earning millions of dollars in the past decades.
The problem is that Joe Biden, while well-meaning, was probably financially illiterate or irresponsible. And he also spent a lifetime in debt and financially stretching himself thin.
It Gets Worse Mr. President
To put it very nicely, the information above tells us that Joe Biden is about as good with his money as John Daly. Based on the following information, it gets worse. Much worse.
Biden is married to Dr. Julie Biden who taught English in high school for 13 years, then taught at a community college for 16 years, and has been employed for the last two years as an adjunct professor at a community college in Virginia.
Teachers aren’t paid as well as politicians, but if we make a very modest estimate that she’s earned an average of $30,000 a year over her working career, that’s another $930,000 of income for the Biden family. With a more realistic estimate, her income is probably well over $1 million.
We are also neglecting to include any of the income he made before his political career. Biden was elected to the Senate at 30 years of age. Before working in the Senate he was a practicing lawyer with his own private firm and an elected member of a county council for two years.
Biden failed at several businesses, worked for the DuPont corporation, and even sold cars. Biden started his law firm after borrowing money from his dealership. I have no idea how much he made during this time, but let’s pretend it’s $0 just to make him look better. You’re welcome, Joe!
Maybe he was riddled with student loan debt? Probably not. He went to college decades before the current education bubble, so prices would have been reasonable in the ’60s. His undergrad degree was from the University of Delaware, which has an annual tuition of $8,540 for in-state residents today.
I’ll take a wild guess and say tuition was probably well under $1,000 a year when Biden attended. His law degree is from Syracuse, which is about $44,000 a year today but was obviously much cheaper in the 1960s as well. We can pretend he had a few thousand bucks in student loan debt, but nothing a lawyer/senator can’t pay off in a year or two.
Well, maybe he’s a really nice guy and gives all his money to charity? He gave an average of $369 a year to charity from 1999 to 2008. How generous considering he was making between $136,700 and $169,300 a year, not to mention his wife’s salary on top of that.
Still, he’s made up for that in recent years by giving away at least $1 million to charity. Better late than never.
Unmanageable Debt
Unfortunately, Joe Biden’s life has been marred by frequent tragedy and an inability to get ahead of his debt.
In 1972 Biden lost his first wife Nelia and 13-month old daughter Naomi in a car accident. The accident also injured his two young sons Beau and Hunter.
Shortly thereafter, Biden bought a house for himself and his surviving sons for $185,000. Adjusted for inflation, that is the equivalent of $1.2 million today. While admirable in the face of tragedy, Biden could barely afford the home.
Worse, he ended refinancing the home multiple times over the following years. Biden took on mortgages that cost a lot more than what he initially paid for the home.
In 2015, Biden’s son Beau died from brain cancer. It kept him from running for president in 2016 and kept him scrambling to raise money for Beau’s treatment. Biden contemplated selling properties and was even offered a loan by President Barack Obama.
Biden’s life tragedies are only mentioned in context. The point is that your personal finance skills are questionable when you are vice-president and your boss, the president, has to offer you a loan to help you in a jam.
And that was after 40 years of making a politician’s salary.
Joe Biden is a Financial Embarrassment
I usually don’t care what famous people do with their money. They have earned it and they can do with it as they please. Joe Biden got a nice pension in 2017 and even became president.
So, at least he failed upward finally when it came to finances. (Still, less than a million in liquidity after earning $17.3 million in under four years…yikes.)
My issue is that we are slowly recovering from the worst financial crisis of the last 60 years and Joe Biden, the man who turned millions into hundreds of thousands, can’t balance his personal finances after 40 years in public service.
I’m not saying that having millions in net worth means you will do a good job addressing the economy and the federal deficit (see: Bush and Obama), but I do think having a basic understanding of saving and investing money is important when you have the power to sign or veto bills on economic and financial legislation.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy that the Secret Service is as awesome at their jobs as I am tonight.
Joe Biden seems like a nice guy. But I wouldn’t trust him with my money if my life depended on it. And now, the United State’s economy has to trust his judgment for the next four years.
For more on the Politicians in office and how they can affect us, and how we can better ourselves check out these articles.
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James Hendrickson is an internet entrepreneur, blogging junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.
Those are RIDICULOUS numbers! Although don’t Senators have a sweet pension system that they set themselves up?
Yeah, he has a pension that will leave him set for life so I guess that’s a good reason not to save, but what the heck is he spending all that money on?
Wow.. Not completely surprising I suppose, but still embarrassing nonetheless.
He was the poorest senator before he became VP, and his wife is the first VP wife to maintain a job while her husband is the VP. Ouch.
That’s what he receives on the books, I’m sure he has several million he received under the table, campaign contributions, etc.
That’s a good point. He’s definitely spending way more than his income thanks to all that kind of stuff. Maybe he has some offshore accounts.
I’m floored. How in the world …
Me too. I had a different post written for today, but after reading this last night I had to put this one out immediately
Everything you said = AGREED! My net worth isn’t that much less than Biden’s, and I am much younger, make a fifth of what he did in 2010, and there is only one of me to bring in income. Not that his net worth is something to sneeze, but it should be much higher considering all the variables.
Bravo on a well-researched and written article. One of your best, I think!
Thanks Denise. And congrats on being close to Biden’s net worth. I’m sure you’ll pass him soon at the rate he’s going
First off, that graphic definitely made my day. It’s pretty awesome!
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. In my work, I’ve seen several millionaires squander or leverage their money away like it was nothing. Just goes to show that it doesn’t matter how much money you make, anyone can live beyond their means.
Exactly. You can make millions and be a paycheck away from bankruptcy, or you can make $30k a year but have a million in the bank. Or lots of things in between.
Man I HATE it when the leadership is on the same level as me! I’d much rather have someone like McCain who has seven houses, and who’s wife wore a dress that would take me 10 years to save up for!
I mean, someone who’s out of touch with the common American will do a far better job of leading, right?
With all due respect, if you have been making an average of $110k for the last 40 years, and your net worth is only $250k, then I’m embarrassed for your net worth just like I’m embarrassed for Joe Biden’s.
It will take me a couple of years to make what the VP did last year and while I’m in debt and my net worth is negative, I might surpass him in a few years. Considering that he’s been working for longer than I’ve been alive I would hope that he has a bit more stashed somewhere that we know nothing about.
Good article Kevin!
I don’t know. Maybe he just really wants to live off that pension.
The VP doesn’t have to pay for transportation, clothing, meals, healthcare, shelter, or anything else. You pay for all that stuff. Congratulations, he is like a bum uncle that stays on your couch. Only his couch is probably way nicer than yours. The guy probably doesn’t even own a wallet! If he wants some Thin Mints at 4am in the off season. … He’s got a guy for that. (I picture a bunch of sleepy Girl Scouts in a secret basement kitchen trying to make cookies, while a bunch of special ops guys with machine guns watch over them). Ya, something like that.
When his political carreer is over he’ll probably write a book, then travel the country accepting free meals and giving boring speaches.
Who needs money when you’ve got a deal like that?
He has definitely made himself a very nice financial situation for the future. I just can’t believe how much he has avoided saving in the past.
Oh well, he still gets a pension of no more than 80% of his previous $174,000 a year salary.
There’s no better way to tell someone not to save than to guarantee them a stream of income after retirement; I think Social Security has proven this to be true those of us not entitled to a senator’s pension.
That’s a great point. To be honest, if I had a pension worth 80% of $174k, I’d just quit my job today. I just wonder where he keeps all the stuff he bought. He must have lots of TVs and Cars, or be really bad at gambling.
Maybe he spent it caring for his family after he lost half of them in a car accident & almost lost his other 2 sons?! Or maybe he just doesn’t give a crap because he’s gonna be making more in retirement than any of us could ever dream of making even in our best year! 😛
I’m sure he did spend quite a bit of money caring for his family and paying medical bills, but again, that was a long time ago. I agree with you about his disgusting retirement plan that you and I will be paying for until he dies.
Wow…I’d love to know what he does have to show for all of that.
You’d think he has a house full of flat screens or a garage full of expensive cars or something.
Really? That’s nuts!
Where does he live? The house should be worth more than that. Maybe he stash his money in gold bars or in a Swiss bank account.
I can’t believe he is that poor. There must be a mistake somewhere.
Wherever he lives, he’s taken out a home equity loan against the house. It’s all there in his disclosure
I’ve got to agree.. that is VERY shocking how little his NW is after 40 years and that salary!
I think this is what happens when you start depending on the government. You become undisciplined with your finances and just expect a bailout upon retirement.
He’ll do well though, as he’ll get 90% of his last years income FOR LIFE which amounts to millions if capitalized.
Sam
Stunning. Way to go shining some light on a pretty sad state of affairs. Hilarious comment on the secret service. The number 2 man is so sloppy with his personal finance, how can he possibly help us? Perhaps we need to add a personal finance litmus test for all elected officials. They do deal with a lot of budget and finance issues, right?
The net worth calculation is a bit misleading. He has a great annuity which is excluded from the calculation. I am not sure what his government pension will be the day he retires but I wouldn’t be amazed if it is over $150,000 a year. That is quite a valuable asset that is being excluded.
I guess based on your argument you are very happy with the job the millionaires that predominate in congress have done the last 40 years. I must say I think they have managed the county’s finances very poorly. But your argument seems to be you want more of their type of thinking the next 40 years? We have a few (handful) that are not rich – they certainly cannot have had much to do with the current situation – they have been vastly outnumbered for decades.
My belief is we need people that adopt sound policies for the government. And the last 40- years gives ZERO evidence being rich makes that more likely. At least that is how I see it. Obviously some people look at the facts differently. And I am glad people can express their opinions and learn from each other.
Now if you want to say Joe Bidden isn’t the best person to model your personal financial plan on that seems to make sense. And, if you want to say he isn’t the best person to lead the countries finances based on what has transpired while he has been in office that makes sense. I just don’t find much evidence that electing rich people has been such a great thing for the last 40 years. Other factors are much much much more important than their bank accounts.
I’ll freely admit that Biden’s net worth isn’t anything to write home about but at least he’s filing his taxes! Congressmen, senators, and political appointees who owe huge amounts of back taxes or don’t file at all are what really irk me.
I read this article in shock.
Honestly though, I don’t think net worth as much to do with how much money you make. It has everything to do with what you do with that money. I made an income slightly lower than Biden’s current income and still managed to get into debt all because of very stupid financial decisions.
The people with the highest net worth don’t even consider themselves wealthy, they’re just smart with their money.
Wow, how on earth could his net worth be so low? I can’t imagine HOW he spent so much money, even if he really, really tried …. Is he really managing several billion taxpayer dollars?
I interviewed Joe Biden once when I was a newspaper reporter and he was a Senator entertaining a long-shot bid for the Presidency. I was impressed by his candor. I asked him a question that most politicians would dance around, but he gave me a straight-shot answer, despite the fact that the answer was a bit embarrassing for him. (He had just delivered a speech about the Iraq War. During the speech he said there were some issues he cared about deeply and others that he didn’t give a hoot about. So I met with him privately and asked him to name an example of an issue about which he’s ambivalent. He replied: transportation funding. I laughed … and printed his answer in the paper the next day. We were clearly on-the-record.)
I am sure Joe Biden, like most political figures, keeps most of what he owns in trusts, so they are hidden from these types of disclosures. Don’t you think that it’s odd that no properties are listed here except one small rental property?
@Flexo – That was my first though, too. Has anyone checked what trusts have his name? I find it quite strange that he only has that much. That alone sends up red flags to me.
He must be living pretty high on the hog to blow through that kind of cash! I am the age of Biden’s children, and have only been in the workforce for 8 years since gradschool at a salary less than $60K and have actually been unemployed for the last two years (thanks Obama) and my net worth is about the same as a 40 year senator and VP of the United States who has a working spouse? WTF?????
Biden is either hiding his money in some tax haven like the Cayman Islands or Liechtenstein, or Bernie Madoff was his financial advisor. ROFL
I’m definately no Biden fan, but he could be giving his money to his kids and grandkids. The implication here, that he is not just a buffoon verbally, but he is also a buffon financially is really unfounded.
You know I wouldn’t be surprised if Joe actually gave the vast majority of his earnings to charity and just didn’t declare it in his taxes. I gave about $1,000 bucks last year to charities and just because I didn’t declare it on my taxes doesn’t mean I didn’t give it.
Expecting to get refunded for money you give to a cause kind of defeats the purpose…he might also pay for everything out his own pocket in regards to flights etc regardless if it is offered for free from his position…which for me would be more of a selling point to the guy.
I have no idea what the guy does with his cash and just the fact that the guy is willing to disclose his finances says a lot more to me than a blog post about how he must be an idiot.
Worst case scenario he’s an idiot with finances (which I doubt), best case scenario he’s a really altruistic guy…
Not a bad piece of writing though, makes me wonder what he’s done with his personal wealth; but I doubt the vice president is an idiot.
So in recap I can believe your hyperbolic sense of how he must be unfit to help the nation out because he’s a super sucker or you can believe my hyperbolic version in which case he’s the perfect guy.
Either way we both have no clue what we’re talking about first hand, and we’re just spit balling an explanation that best suits how we personally feel.
I guess this proves that you don’t have to be good with money to be successful at work…
But actually, I’m commenting because I wanted to tell you: this is my favourite personal finance blog post ever. I loved it so much, I even blogged about it, and I wish I’d read it sooner.
During the 2008 campaign I read a comparison of Palin’s finances to Biden’s, and was shocked. I had the same “do I really want this guy making decisions for our country?” moment. For what it’s worth, I was under the impression then that the money was primarily spent on re-election bids. The Home Equity loan was to finance his latest campaign.
Thanks for the well written article. I had researched this in the last Presidential election and could not understand why this appearance of dismal financial management was not made a part of the campaign. He is the poorest in net worth if I recall correctly, of all the senators. I moved 20 times or more in the past 30 years with most moves costing in the area of about 10k by the time you figured out the intangibles which were lost–selling and buying vehicles, throwing or giving away food in the house, dumping old and buying new furniture etc etc etc. Our net worth is not that great but in a lousy economy we are keeping our heads above water. Yes I have a small pension but it is not enough to live on, yet, I have not had a real job in 15 years (I do work very hard on my own small endeavors) and we put one kid through college and are surviving just fine. I just could not and can not get my head around where all the bucks went.
As to the charity giving. I am sure that info was included on the disclosures as it is a routine question.
Hey Assholes, how about consider his CHILDREN? He has three living children, one dead. His three children attended U of Penn, Syracuse, Yale, Duke and not to mention after four years of college, all of them wanted to continue their education with law school and whatnot. That’s 8 years of school EACH, and all three go to Ivy Leagues or private well known schools.
Do the math people. No wonder the man is broke. So he likes to treat his family with the income he makes. Why should he save it? Its not like he’s gonna live forever and the more he makes, the longer he’ll live.
Think. Don’t judge. The man isn’t an idiot. He spent his young adulthood in the middle class. Don’t tell me if you had money, you wouldn’t be spending it too.
Well…this whole “net worth” thing is a crock of crap and VERY misleading…first off, his home is listed at it’s ASSESSED value – not the APPRAISED value…even a simple serf as myself knows the difference…try $2.85 million for the real value of his home…if the guy is such an idiot, why is able to fool somebody into thinking his net worth is so low? He’s only attempting deceive us with a statement of “Poor Mouth”, if you just take a little time to dig, you can easily see that’s he’s simply another Washington political elitist.
He spends it on Amtrak every day. The guy used to take Amtrak everyday from Wilmington, DE to Washington, DC thats like 150 bucks a day, add business class then you are just throwing money down the toilet.